Among vehicle body side structures, there is a structure for coupling a portion extending from a roof to an upper portion of a center pillar (see Patent Literature 1, for example). A center pillar is plastically formed as a separate body by using a high tension steel plate, a roof rail is plastically formed by using a normal steel plate, and a vehicle body outer panel coupling portion couples the center pillar and the roof rail near the roof rail. In a vehicle body in which the coupled portions are covered, respective pillars such as a center pillar are divided into upper and lower two portions. Step portions are formed at boundary portions where the upper portions and the lower portions are coupled and seal tape is stuck to the step portion, with which a seal member provided to a door comes in contact, out of the step portions (see Patent Literature 2, for example).
However, an outward appearance of the vehicle body outer panel coupling portion disclosed in Patent Literature 1 is not good, because a step is formed by a plate material laid on the coupling portion between the upper portion of the center pillar and the roof rail or a welding mark remains.
In the side structure disclosed in Patent Literature 2, the seal tape is stuck only to a position corresponding to the seal member provided to the door and therefore seal tape does not exist at the remaining step portions. In this manner, the step portions formed at the coupling portions are exposed and remain, which detracts from the appearance. If large seal tape adapted to the remaining step portions is used to cover the remaining step portions, a thin edge of the seal tape (door seal cover) corrugates and it is difficult to carry out the operation. Moreover, the thin edge of the seal tape (door seal cover) may not uniformly come in contact, which detracts from appearance.